CRISIS WORK AT SCHOOLS

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CRISIS WORK AT SCHOOLS
School psychologist Tiina Varjola 25.07.2007
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How school crisis are dealt with in Tampere

• Each school has its own crisis plan ready
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• - important to update regularly
• - recommended that teachers and members of the
  student welfare team should each have their own
  paper version of the crisis plan
• - information about additional materials of
  dealing with crisis and sorrow included
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• The school principal leads the crisis work at
  school
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• - The leadership and the areas of responsibility
  must be clear to all parties involved.
• - The school principal is ready to co-operate
  with the crisis team.
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• The school psychologists and the school social
  workers have their own crisis plan which helps
  them to see their role in the school crisis team.
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• - The resources of special services are divided
  into five local teams. The local team helps the
  team members in crisis situation if more labour
  is needed. If that is not enough more help can be
  acquired from special services.
• - The school psychologist who has specialized in
  crisis and trauma psychology takes care of
  debriefings and gives consultation when needed.

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• If the crisis is due to severe accident or
  death of an adult or a pupil
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• - The school principal summons the school
  crisis group.
• - If the deceased is a member of the school
  staff the rest of the staff gets psychological
  help and support by the workers health
  organization. In this case the support needed by
  the pupils must be considered from case to case.
• - If the death is sudden and unexpected
  organizing a debriefing session is recommended in
  each case.
• - If the death is expected the pupils can be
  helped to deal with it beforehand in which case
  the actual debriefing may not be necessary when
  the death occurs.
• - There will be a follow up session after the
  debriefing in about a month. There can also be
  group sessions for pupils where they are taught
  coping skills and explained the process of grief.
  
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• - The teachers are told to keep an eye on the
  pupil behaviour and possible symptoms of PTSD.
  Questionnaires like IES-scale are used to find
  out which pupils need further treatment.
• - The school psychologists and the school
  social workers can work a bit more with the
  inflicted children but if the symptoms are severe
  the family counselling unit or the expertise of
  child psychiatry is needed.
• - During the first year after the event the
  process of grief is made conscious by recognizing
  the anniversaries, holidays and birthdays
  concerning the deceased.
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• The school principal is aware of the
  stressfulness of the situation and makes it
  possible for the teachers to get the support and
  counselling they need.
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• The student welfare team takes care of they
  own psychological and physiological well being

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Type 1) A school community, which has a proper
crisis plan and it is willing to co-operate
with other experts who have knowledge of crisis
work

• - The school principal is clearly the head of
  the school crisis group and takes responsibility
  of updating the crisis plan regularly.
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• - The school staff has access to the crisis
  plan and the manual of it is available to all.
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• - The school principal summons the crisis
  group when needed.
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• - The crisis group is committed to its work
  and is willing to act when ever necessary.
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• - The attitude at school is positive towards
  the crisis work.
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• - The school accepts outside help.
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• - The school sees the necessity of providing
  psychological help to all of those children that
  are said to be in need of it. The school provides
  proper environment for this kind of work.
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• - The information about the crisis situation
  and what is being done at school because of it
  has reached the homes of the children. The
  parents are told that the crisis work is part of
  the normal functioning of the school. The parents
  are also told that the most inflicted children
  need more specialized work.
• - The school understands that after the
  immediate crisis work follow ups are also needed
  in order to find those children who need more
  treatment.
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• - The school staff has been educated about the
  long term effects of crisis and they are also
  responsible of supporting the children along with
  the study welfare team.
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• The school community believes in surviving
  together.
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• - The teachers can get support from the
  workers health organization.
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• If the crisis work is completed properly the
  mutual understanding increases.
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Type 2) A school community which likes to co-
operate but acts without a regular plan

• Everyone knows there is a crisis plan somewhere
  but nobody knows where it is.
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• - When a crisis occurs individual workers
  start to wonder what to do next. The school
  principal does not take responsibility of the
• situation or takes it when someone tells him
  to.
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• - The school crisis group may assemble or the
  individual workers start to act.
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• - The attitude towards the crisis work is
  positive. Help is preferred to come from outside
  the school because the school crisis group is not
  committed to its role.
• - The school accepts help, but help is not
  necessarily focused on those children and groups
  of pupils that need it the most. There is
  inadequacy in finding out which children are
  inflicted by the situation.
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Type 2

• - The debriefing may be held in poor
  circumstances. The room may not be suitable for
  this kind of work. The session may be interrupted
  if there is not enough time reserved for it.
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• The reports of the situation reach homes
  casually.
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• - The school expects the crisis to be over in
  a few days and everyday life is expected to go on
  smoothly. The school does not see any needs to
  work more on the subject and follow ups are not
  necessary.
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• - No one takes responsibility of what has
  been done. Did not they do it already?
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• - The members of the school community try to
  cope with the situation by themselves.
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• - The success rate of the crisis work depends
  on the circumstances. Some get a little help.
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• - Everyone feels vaguely that there could have
  been more that one might have done. Let us hope
  that this does not happen again!

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Type 3) The school community seems to be co-
operative but actually sabotages the crisis
work

• - The school either has or has not got the
  crisis plan.
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• - The beginning of the crisis work is delayed
  because the crisis group is waiting for the
  school principal to activate.
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• - The members of the crisis group feel
  uncertain about their roles and do not feel free
  to act because the school principal is ambiguous
  in his thoughts concerning the benefits of the
  crisis work.
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• - The school community knows that crisis work
  is important, but each individual is thinking how
  much of it is needed.
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• - The school thinks that participating any form
  of psychological help may actually do more harm
  than good.
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• - We have made it before principal
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• - If the school decides to call for outside
  help the person that is called is put to a
  position where he must bargain for the methods to
  be used. Having the helper around becomes a
  nuisance in the eyes of the school community.

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Type 3

• - Some individual members of the school community
  feel anxiety and try to get some help from the
  outsider.
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• - The reports of the situation reach homes
  casually. The crisis work is shown as an
  alternative way of handling the situation.
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• - The timing of the crisis work does not work
  out because the school does not see that it needs
  help.
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• - The pupils get a funny feeling of being
  ashamed of the help they are given because the
  adults seem ambiguous about it.
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• - The follow ups do not proceed as agreed.
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• - The teachers have anxiety symptoms.
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• - Everyone is left with a feeling that
  something ought to have been done differently.
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• - Let us hope that this does not happen
  again!
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Type 4) A school community that denies the
need of the crisis work and feels hostile
towards it 

• - The school has a crisis plan but the school
  principal does not consider it to be of any
  importance and therefore it is never updated
  properly.
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• - When a crisis occurs the school principal
  decides that the school does not need to act. He
  does not negotiate with the crisis group or the
  teachers.
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• - The members of the school crisis group are
  not even sure if they are supposed to be in it,
  because it has been such a long time since the
  last assembly.
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• - The schools attitude towards the crisis work
  is hostile and there are feelings of rejection.
• - The school does not ask for outside help and
  when it is offered it gets rejected.
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• - The everyday life in the school community
  continues normally. Some expressions of grief may
  be allowed.
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Type 4

• - The crisis is talked about amongst the
  teachers and the study welfare team. Everyone is
  waiting for time to pass so it can be said that
  the crisis has gone away.
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• - No one wants to be consciously aware that the
  crisis work is poorly accomplished.
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• The pupils are suffering from the long- term
  effects of trauma. The children feel uncertain
  about the future and diminution of safety.
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• - The pupils seek support from each other and
  not from the school adults.
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• - When time passes some children have so severe
  symptoms that they are referred to a family
  counselling unit. They are considered to be
  psychiatric cases when in fact they have tried to
  survive with poor psychological first aid and
  hence developed PTSD.

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ABOUT DEBRIEFING USED WITH SCHOOL CLASSES

• - always necessary if the death is unexpected
  and sudden
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• - The necessity of a debriefing session in a
  case of a serious accident without fatal
  casualties must be considered case by case. If
  the accident has eyewitnesses amongst the pupils
  it may be a good idea to organize for them a some
  what lighter version of a debriefing meaning a
  defusing session.
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• - When a debriefing is being held with a
  school class it may be a good idea to ask their
  teacher to join the session. The familiar school
  social worker, the school psychologist or even
  the school nurse can also attend the session. It
  is useful for them to observe the reactions of
  the children so that they can work more with them
  if necessary. It is also important that more than
  one adult is present at the situation in a case
  of an abreaction. In that case they can proceed
  with the child in another room.
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• - The debriefing is recommend to be held in a
  short period of time after the incident. It
  should be noticed that shock can last for several
  days depending on the individual reactions. The
  incident itself also defines the reactions a car
  accident, a suicide, a tsunami. You cannot attend
  to a debriefing in a state of shock.
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• - The school holidays may create some limits
  to organizing a debriefing. It must be noticed
  that if a debriefing is held too late it may open
  the healing wounds and cause a person to re
  traumatize.
• - The crisis group must select the
  participators of a debriefing session carefully
  in advance.
• It is very important that the participators
  have similar experiences of the situation. You
  cannot put eyewitnesses, those who have lost
  their best friend and otherwise agitated in a
  same group. The experiences, thoughts and
  feelings must not cause unnecessary shock to
  anyone.
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• - When a debriefing is held properly it does
  not harm anyone but is an effective, preventive
  method of psychological help.
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• - You must have a large enough room where
  people can sit in a circle. The disturbances and
  outside noise should be minimized.
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• - You should have water, cups, handkerchiefs,
  a candle and preferably a photo of the deceased
  with you.
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• - A debriefing takes as long as needed. With
  children it usually takes about 1,5 h or a bit
  more. The teacher should realize this. You cannot
  have a lunch break between a debriefing. You can
  quickly go to the toilet and come back but you
  cannot interrupt a debriefing after the dentist.
  The homes should have enough information about
  the session beforehand so that parents can make
  sure that their child can attend.
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• - It takes a good short- term memory to work
  with school classes because there are usually
  quite a lot of participators present.
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• - With children it is very important to think
  about the future and normalize the situation. A
  debriefing is also a good occasion to think about
  the funeral with the class and make plans
  together about whether attend it or not.
  Depending on the age of the participators the
  leader of the session should be prepared to
  answer all kinds of questions about death and
  dying, about an autopsy and a corpse etc.
  Children need these facts for coping with the
  situation.
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• - The follow up should be held after the
  funeral. In that session the children can work
  their feelings and thoughts about the funeral and
  possibly visiting the grave.
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• - The debriefing is not enough. It is like a
  psychological plaster on a wound that will start
  to get infected if it is not cleaned properly.
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• - You also need to teach the children the
  coping skills they need when they have to deal
  with the flash backs, the intruding thoughts of
  anxiety, the need to avoid the reminders and the
  grief.
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• - It is also advisable to use questionnaires
  like IES-scales to find out those children who
  have risk of PTSD.

City of Tampere / Finland